SUMMARY

SUMMARY

IDENTIFICATION

SCIENTIFIC NAME(s)

Pandalus jordani

SPECIES NAME(s)

Ocean shrimp

COMMON NAMES

Common pink shrimp, Pink shrimp

Pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani) are found in waters from southeast Alaska to California at depths of 37 to 460 meters. High densities of pink shrimp occur in well-defined areas, known as shrimp beds, over green mud or mud-sand substrates.

Genetic stock identification work on ocean shrimp has failed to isolate any genetic differences between ocean shrimp from off the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (Collier and Hannah 2001), so a single stock unit has tentatively been considered. Separate assessments are however conducted in US and Canadian waters, with multiple stocks considered and separately assessed in the latter.

Catches of pink shrimp in the USA exclusive economic zone (California to Washington) reached a record high of around 40 000 tons in 2014. Pink shrimp are taken in a demersal otter trawl fishery for mixed shrimp species off the West Coast of the USA that mainly operates in Washington, Oregon and northern California. Most catches of pink shrimp are taken in Oregon with around sixty licenced vessels participating in the fishery. Vessels operating in the fishery are typically less than 100 feet in length and use a double rigged system of box trawls fitted with mandatory bycatch reduction devices. The fishing season runs from the 1st of April to the 31st of October, and most commercial catches are taken in the daytime at depths between 90 and 180 meters. The fishery targets pink shrimp between one and two years of age and is strongly influenced by fluctuations in recruitment.

For assessment and management purposes, the pink shrimp population inhabiting the USA exclusive economic zone (California to Washington) is considered by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to be a single stock. No genetically distinct sub-populations of pink shrimp have been identified off the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (Collier and Hannah 2001). Adults from different shrimp beds rarely intermix, but the planktonic larvae undoubtedly intermingle given the lack of genetically distinct subpopulations in the region.

Local trawling grounds lie along the continental shelf off Tofino and Nootka Sound, in Barkley Sound, and along the east coast of Vancouver Island. This shrimp, now in second place commercially, was the most valuable shrimp species landed from 1960 to 1978 (DFO 2012).

Shrimp biomass is highly variable within and between SMA’s and among years.

The uncertainties in the estimation of pink and sidestripe shrimp biomass are reported as 95% confidence intervals (CI) and provided to resource managers in-season. The 95% CI’s for estimated total pink and sidestripe shrimp biomass are only available since 2010 when modifications to the data analysis were made to allow for their calculation (DFO 2010).

It should be noted that the 95% CI’s are quite wide for some of the biomass estimates and often span across the PA reference points. Another source of uncertainty is the scaling factor to convert the empirically-derived index to an absolute estimate of biomass. Currently a scaling factor of 1 is used where the index is assumed to be an absolute estimate of abundance (DFO 2012).

FISHSOURCE SCORES

Management Quality:

Management Strategy:

NOT YET SCORED

Managers Compliance:

NOT YET SCORED

Fishers Compliance:

NOT YET SCORED

Stock Health:

Current Health:

NOT YET SCORED

Future Health:

NOT YET SCORED

FIPS

No related FIPs

CERTIFICATIONS

No related MSC fisheries

Fisheries

Within FishSource, the term "fishery" is used to indicate each unique combination of a flag country with a fishing gear, operating within a particular management unit, upon a resource. That resource may have a known biological stock structure and/or may be assessed at another level for practical or jurisdictional reasons. A fishery is the finest scale of resolution captured in FishSource profiles, as it is generally the scale at which sustainability can most fairly and practically be evaluated.

Shrimp biomass is highly variable within and between SMA’s and among years.

The uncertainties in the estimation of pink and sidestripe shrimp biomass are reported as 95% confidence intervals (CI) and provided to resource managers in-season. The 95% CI’s for estimated total pink and sidestripe shrimp biomass are only available since 2010 when modifications to the data analysis were made to allow for their calculation (DFO 2010).

It should be noted that the 95% CI’s are quite wide for some of the biomass estimates and often span across the PA reference points. Another source of uncertainty is the scaling factor to convert the empirically-derived index to an absolute estimate of biomass. Currently a scaling factor of 1 is used where the index is assumed to be an absolute estimate of abundance (DFO 2012).

1.STOCK STATUS

STOCK ASSESSMENT

British Columbia

Last updated on 30 August 2016

The current assessment concludes that shrimp stocks show high annual variation and that all stocks were relatively unchanged or decreased from 2010 levels except SMA FR sidestripe which was at a record high (DFO 2012).

The shrimp trawl fishery is a multi-species fishery where species are mixed both spatially and temporally and, as a result, when the TAC for one species is reached, the entire SMA is closed. Recent low effort in the fishery has also been a contributing factor to not reaching the annual TAC in some of the SMA’s.

SCIENTIFIC ADVICE

Last updated on 30 August 2016

For this stock, the main research priority is to continue examining shrimp population dynamics. Commercial fisheries data should be used to estimate total catch-at-age and effort by area. In addition, a re-evaluation of the fishery’s long-term effects on shrimp population structure should be completed. More information on how recent increases in shrimp density have influenced growth rates, age composition and sex change ratios is required (Hannah and Jones 2015). Research focusing on the use of artificial (LED) lights on trawls to reduce finfish bycatch should be ongoing. Feedback from fishers on how the lights are best installed, maintained and utilised is required (Hannah and Jones, 2015). A better understanding of the effects of the demersal otter trawl fishery on the ecosystem is needed. A camera system should be developed to improve knowledge of the ecosystem effects of fishing (Hannah and Jones 2015).

British Columbia

Last updated on 30 August 2016

Reference Points

Last updated on 30 Aug 2016

1) For shrimp stocks in the Healthy zone, a 35% harvest rate is applied to the estimated biomass;

2) For shrimp stocks in the Cautious zone, a progressive reduction in harvest rate is applied to the estimated biomass where harvest rate = 35%*((Biomass–40% Bmsy)/(80%Bmsy–40%Bmsy));

3) For shrimp stocks in the Critical zone, a harvest rate of 0% is applied to the estimated biomass.

CURRENT STATUS

Last updated on 30 August 2016

Trends

Last updated on 30 Aug 2016

Historically, the majority of pink shrimp fishing off the west coast of the United States occurred in federal waters (DFW 2007). Since 2007, essentially all of the pink shrimp landings have been in the Eureka area off the coast of Northern California (DFW Commercial Landings Reports 2007-11). Although in recent years the southern beds have been productive, they do not appear to have been fished (DFW, Commercial Landings Reports 2007- 11). It is unclear as to why this may be, but it may be due to low value of the fishery itself and/ or the inability to land pink shrimp at southern ports due to the lack of buyers. There are no enhancements on the west coast to the pink shrimp stock. ODFW estimates the number of vessels and amount of catch caught in federal waters off California and landed in Oregon ports, from logbooks. In recent years this catch and effort was considerably larger than California landings. In 2011, the estimated catch originating in federal waters off California was 10.3 million pounds from 20 vessels and in 2012 it was 9.5 million pounds from 31 vessels. This catch category was under 3.0 million pounds from 2008 through 2010. CDFW does not currently have an estimate of the amount of shrimp caught off Oregon and landed in California ports (DFW Commercial Landings Reports 2007-11).

British Columbia

Last updated on 30 August 2016

The current assessment concludes that shrimp stocks show high annual variation and that all shrimp stocks were relatively unchanged or decreased from 2010 levels except SMA FR sidestripe which was at a record high (DFO 2012).

The SMA PRD pink shrimp biomass index was variable between 1998 and 2004 and fluctuated above and below the USR. From 2005 to 2011 the stock has remained above the USR and in the Healthy zone. The 2011 pink shrimp biomass index increased slightly from the 2010 level (DFO 2012).

Trends

Last updated on 30 Aug 2016

The inshore shrimp trawl fishery along the coast of British Columbia exploits primarily two species of pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani and P. borealis) and sidestripe shrimp (Pandalopsis dispar). Prior to 1996 the fishery was generally open year-round with no catch limitations. Starting in 1995 fishing effort increased sharply with corresponding unprecedented harvest and movement of the fleet into areas that were not historically fished. In response to this increased harvest, significant changes in the management and assessment of shrimp stocks were implemented commencing in 1997. These changes included the development and implementation of an assessment program similar to the one established for West Coast Vancouver Island that utilizes swept-area, fishery-independent trawl surveys to index shrimp biomass. Shrimp Management Areas (SMA’s) and area catch ceilings were also established in 1997 along the entire coast of British Columbia (DFO 2010).

2.MANAGEMENT QUALITY

MANAGEMENT

Last updated on 30 August 2016

The management of this stock is likely to remain stable in the future given that the stock review is updated annually and control measures are in place to adequately protect the stock from overexploitation. Regulations are enforced and independently verified using several surveillance measures. Managed via minimum mesh size, size limits, catch limits, seasonal closures; no evaluation of methods; Shared management with OR and WA; no CA-­‐specific data.

Pink shrimp in the USA exclusive economic zone (California to Washington) is reviewed annually by the Department of Fish and Wildlife/Game in each respective state (Oregon, California and Washington) to estimate commercial catch-at-age, fishing effort, market prices and recruitment. The stock assessment is based on a time-series of commercial catches including sex and size compositions as well as an index of recruitment derived from commercial catch rates. A formal stock assessment has not been undertaken and the annual stock review is based on fishery-dependent data. No reference points for long-term sustainability have been defined for this data-limited stock (Hannah and Jones 2014; 2015). Standardised research surveys were undertaken in California in the early-1980s to obtain fishery-independent data. However, the research surveys were expensive to undertake and ran into a number of operational problems. Extreme variability in shrimp catches, some of which was attributed to the vertical distribution of the species, limited the usefulness of abundance/biomass estimates from the surveys (Devitt et al. 2007; Frimodig et al. 2009; Hannah and Jones 2015).

Recovery Plans

Last updated on 30 Aug 2016

No rebuilding program in place for any of the jurisdictional units.

British Columbia

Last updated on 30 August 2016

The status of British Columbia inshore shrimp stocks, as indexed through annual surveys, forms the biological basis upon which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Fisheries and Aquaculture Management Branch sets annual area catch ceilings, referred as total allowable catch (TAC). In addition, in 2009, DFO implemented provisional Precautionary Approach (PA) harvest control rules for shrimp stocks (DFO 2010).

The shrimp trawl fishery is a multi-species fishery managed to species-specific annual total allowable catch (TAC) by shrimp management area (SMA). For index sites, TAC’s are based on the biomass index derived from fishery independent surveys and for non-index sites arbitrary TAC’s are used. The implementation of TAC’s occurred in 1997 in all SMA’s with the exception of the offshore areas that had seasonal openings that were subsequently replaced by TAC’s in 2002. The shrimp trawl fishery is a multi-species fishery where species are mixed both spatially and temporally and, as a result, when the TAC for one species is reached, the entire SMA is closed. Recent low effort in the fishery has also been a contributing factor to not reaching the annual TAC in some of the SMA’s (DFO 2012).

3.ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY

BYCATCH

ETP Species

Last updated on 30 August 2016

There have been no significant interactions identified between the pink shrimp fishery and threatened or endangered marine species of birds, mammals, or fish in California (MSC 2007). The pink shrimp fishery is classified as a Marine Mammal Protection Act category III fishery with no observed or documented take of marine mammals (Federal Register: Vol. 72, No. 124). Other biologically sensitive species in near pink shrimp trawling grounds in California include canary rockfish, bocaccio, widow rockfish, and yelloweye rockfish (NMFS 2005; MSC 2007). The bycatch of these rockfish species has been minimized due to BRDs (MSC 2007). Recently the listing of Pacific eulachon has resulted in the first and only interaction of the pink shrimp trawl fishery with ETP.

Other Species

Last updated on 30 August 2016

The bycatch impact of the fishery is likely to remain stable in the future. Bycatch levels in this fishery are low (maximum of <6% of total catch weight) and all vessels have taken steps to reduce the absolute quantity of bycatch using bycatch reduction devices. Gear modifications are continuously under development to further reduce bycatch levels.

HABITAT

Last updated on 30 August 2016

The habitat impact of the fishery is likely to remain stable in the future. All vessels in the fishery have taken steps to reduce the footprint of the gear on the seabed by using appropriate gear technology and 51 discrete areas have been closed to trawling to protect vulnerable marine habitats in the region (NOAA 2015).